Fans pay the market rate for NHL tickets in their city and have been consistently asking for and siding with the side that promoted 30 equal teams and parity. That's why fans in Toronto and Montreal have to pay more and share with smaller markets - because of the system they demanded the owners lock the players out to get.

It's hard to feel sympathy for fans upset because they pay more for tickets in their city than other cities and want a competitive advantage within the 30 equal teams parity system because of that.

But it's gotta really rub some owners the wrong way. I think Ottawa and Florida's owners for example, are or were competitors in the pharmaceutical business in their other non-NHL lives. And were engaged in many lawsuits and brutal competitive tactics against each other, actually, and unlike in the NHL, designed to put their competitor out of business or sue his pants off.

And then at the same time, they are to send revenue sharing cheques to each other from their NHL business to help each other? That's gotta sting.

But, if you set up a system of 30 equal teams, salary caps, and parity, im guessing a grade schooler could tell you that revenue sharing would be required to make it work properly. Like the other leagues they are trying to be like have.

And in the just expired cba, they had such revenue sharing; linked to revenue growth and guaranteed to allow any team to spend to the midpoint. Unless they were big markets or not growing like the average team. And then these same teams who had their revenue sharing cut back are held up as reasons why the players need to take pay cuts so as to allow the system to work - seems on the surface a hard narrative to make convincingly.

Instead of creating the revenue sharing system that's proven to be dramatically unfair to the FANS of rich teams... the millionaire players should just take a substantially smaller piece of the pie.
Problem solved...

Who would I rather see take a hit?
Millionaire players?
Or the regular joe FANS of the rich teams?